A company calling itself NewZoo International claims to have counted up all the gamers using Apple devices and says that in the US Apple is lready the dominant platform, and elsewhere it is rising.
NewZoo says that 40.1 million US people choose the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to play portable games, a number comparable to the Nintendo DS and DSi gamers, which are now 41 million in the US. The poor old Sony’s PSP is only played by a mere 18 million Americans and is way behind in third place.
Two-thirds of PSP and iPad gamers play games on their portable device at least three days a week compared to around 50% on the DS, DSi, iPhone and iPod Touch, so the iPad is actually accelerating Apple’s dominance as a portable gaming platform.
Many of those playing on Apple devices are playing games which cost nothing, with just 45% of them paying for games, and as few as 32% pay for games so far on the iPad, while 67% of Nintendo gamers and 66% of Sony players use paid for games.
The majority of the 160 million Americans playing computer games do so on multiple platforms depending on time of day, social setting and mood. This is illustrated by the fact that almost 14 million of Nintendo DS/DSi gamers (34%) also play games on an iPod Touch and vice versa. The data also shows that nearly 90% of people playing games on the iPad have experience playing on an iPhone or iPod Touch.
Usually the Apple games have a lower average price, compared to portable consoles, and although this doesn’t always lead to people spending less on per month, the DS/DSi and PSP consoles have a clear lead over Apple’s devices with 53% (DS/DSi) and 59% (PSP) of payers spending more than $10 a month, while only 38% for the iPhone and iPod Touch players spend this. The relatively new iPad boasts the highest percentage, 72%, paying more than $10 a month for games.
Peter Warman, MD of Newzoo comments: “Recent growth in the sales figures of the iPod Touch could be an indication that people are increasingly seeing Apple’s portable devices as a game platform. The youth seems to be moving from trying their parents device to buying an iPod Touch for themselves.’
Being able to start off playing free games is a key advantage of iOS and
Android devices and comparable to successful social gaming and MMO business models .
In Europe these trends are not half so prevalent, for instance in the UK there are only 8 million iOS gamers compared to 13 million DS/DSi gamers, but ahead of the 4.5 million PSP gamers; in Germany the numbers are 7 million iOS gamers, 10 million DS/DSi gamers and 2.5
million PSP gamers. Collectively across France, Belgium and the Netherlands these are 6.9 million iOS gamers, 16.8 million DS/DSi gamers and 5.1 million PSP gamers. But in every case the weakness of the Sony device is palpable.
These surveys were performed in the US, UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium and involved 10,000 online questionnaire’s.